Don't Look Back to the Past Instead Reach for the Future

As another year draws to a close I can't help but contemplate on the months that have now passed us by. At the start of 2016 I stated that I wasn't setting any resolutions for myself as I was always left disappointed when they weren't achieved and I am honestly glad that I made that decision. 

Yes I've put on weight over Christmas, of course there are still home improvements to be made and yet and my bank balance isn't as big as I'd like but do you know what, I have no regrets, what will be will be and I refuse to sit and get upset about the things that didn't happen, perhaps they just weren't meant to be.

In a year that took so many celebrities from us and bought us a new British prime minister and an interesting American president, the focus seems to be on all of the negative news stories instead of focusing on any sort of positives. A quote that I want to remember as 2017 begins is, 

Where Is My Butt Book Review

I'll admit that a lot of the books that I pick for my children to read are ones that I think are good and I will also admit that I chose this book to review purely because the title made me laugh. Where Is My Butt tells the tale of Morty the penguin, he asks the all important question, do you know where your butt is?, because this poor penguin has no idea where his is.

Do you know where your butt is? Morty the penguin has no idea! He's pretty sure he has one, but where could it be? When everyone around him is unhelpful, Morty must travel from is icy igloo to outer space to get to the bottom of things. And when he finally does, it's in a most unexpected way! Be prepared to laugh your butt off in this cheeky adventure!

Morty is a penguin who wonders about the important things in life and while living in a cold land far far away he suddenly realises that he has never seen or felt his own butt, his flippers were just too short to reach and his neck just didn't turn around that way.

My Sunday Photo 2016 #52

Elf on the Shelf 2016 Round Up 4

Can you believe it is Christmas Eve, the count down has come to end and so have the elf antics, keep reading to see my final Elf on the Shelf update of 2016. Did Buddy manage to be good this week?

Day seventeen

Buddy and Jovie were being extra nice today, bringing the girls a gift in the shape of Tom Fletcher's book The Christmasaurus.

My December Favourites

The final month of the year, I honestly can't believe it. I know we all say the same thing every year but hasn't it flown by! Any way I do digress I'm back with my December favourites for you all, prepare for a bit of a festive theme.

Festive Jumpers

I love a good Christmas jumper and I have two favourites this year and they both come from boohoo.com. My lovely mum bought me both of them, a gorgeous jumper dress and and an adorable jumper. Both super comfy and warm and really perfect to where all Winter long, a jumper isn't just for Christmas right?

Write It Out Book Review

My children all love to write, ever since they've been able to I've found them creating their very own stories, poems and letters, they even like a good list like their mum but sometimes the ideas can run out and help is needed and that's the book Write It Out can help.

Jam packed with hundreds of writing prompts, it is a fantastic job to trigger some inspirational thinking.

Make this book a special place to express yourself through writing. The entertaining questions and prompts will spark your imagination and inspire you to create a varied collection of creative work. You'll be asked to write a tiny story about why ice cream is so awesome, create a phony encyclopedia entry about the strangest sea creature you can think of, describe your first battle in the Water Ballons Wars, an more.

Getting In The Party Mood With House of Fraser

The festive season is upon us and with that comes an abundance of parties and discos and it isn't just us adults that get inundated with lots of events to attend, our children's social calendars seem to get quite full too. My kids have school discos, tag days, even a school Christmas party and of course different outfits are required for each occasion and who better than to get our wardrobe in the party mood than those lovely people over at House of Fraser.

My two youngest daughters were kindly sent an item each. We were given a list of clothes to pick from my four year old opted for a gorgeous party dress (it apparently looked very princess like) and my six year old after much consideration ended up choosing some spectacular outerwear. Clothing tends to seem just that little bit better with a touch of glitter or sparkle so it is no surprise that my girls chose items that oozed a certain bit of glitz and glam.

My Sunday Photo 2016 #51

I adore this photo, yesterday we took the kids ice skating, I sat on the side lines with the youngest eating candy floss whilst watching the older three getting to grips with being on the ice. My 6 year old just couldn't get the hang of it so ended up being pushed around on this contraption by her dad, now Gracie is a proper daddy's girl so you know she really enjoyed herself.

Elf on the Shelf 2016 Round Up 3

Half way through December and Buddy hasn't been as well behaved as he was in previous weeks, seems he's turned into a bit of a cheeky monkey. Still this Elf on the Shelf is definitely entertaining the kids. My eldest who is well aware that this is all make believe is having fun helping me set up each days antics with me.

Day ten

Seems Jovie fancied a wrap, a Buddy wrap to be precise.

Siblings (December)

It's still hard to believe that it's December. I've really enjoyed joining in with the siblings project this year and looking back I'm honestly shocked at how much the girls have changed in what seems to be such a short space of time. I begun joining in during the month of February (determined to do all year in 2017) and it's quite funny reading back just what they were up to/how they were acting back then.

Apley Towers Book Set Review

Back in the Summer I was sent a wonderful selection of books from Sweet Cherry Publishing and this included the first set of Apley Tower books, recently we were sent the newest novels books 4-6 for my eldest daughter to review. 

In the shade of the Giant's Throne Mountain and on the coast of the Indian Ocean, Port St Christopher is home to Apley Towers; a riding school for girls and boys, young or old who learn what it means to be a true horse rider.

Leaping Lemmings Book Review

I love a book that manages to be entertaining whilst having a lesson to be taught within too and that's exactly what you get in author John Briggs' latest release, Leaping Lemmings. The girls were kindly sent a copy to review and has quickly become one of their favourite stories. 

All lemmings look alike, sound alike, and act alike. Except one. He doesn't fit in at all. He bangs on the bongos and eats pepperoni pizza with hot sauce. The other lemmings think he's nuts. But when they make a dangerous decision, can he stop them from blindly following each other?

Poundstretcher For All Your Festive Needs

The countdown to Christmas is well underway and thoughts of presents to buy, food to eat and where decorations might be hung have all begun. Now if you are like me you'll be looking for a stress free Christmas and this is where Poundstretcher have come to the rescue. 

Stocking everything that might suit your festive needs. I was kindly sent a selection of their range to do with as I wanted so I thought I'd show you just what they had to offer.

Read With Me 2016 #50

Hello you lovely lot, welcome to this weeks Read With Me. This will be the last one of 2016 as I'm going to try and take some time off from blogging over the next couple of weeks so that I can enjoy all of the upcoming Christmas festivities with my children.

Before I go a couple of book recommendations. First up a new/old release from one of my favourtie authors Tijan. Home Tears is a re-edit of an original book that the author wrote a few years ago but never got published.

My Sunday Photo 2016 #50

Yesterday we got new sofas, you know you're old when you get excited over things such as furniture lol. As per husbands request these have reclining seats and I'll admit they're super comfy, great for an afternoon nap nap.

December Book of the Month - The One Memory of Flora Banks

The One Memory of Flora Banks is the tale of a seventeen year old girl called Flora Banks. Flora has grown up somewhat sheltered, she doesn't lead as  normal of a teenage life like perhaps you and I would remember and this is because of a condition that she's been left with, something called anterograde amnesia. 

This in simple terms means she lost the ability to create long lasting memories. Flora can remember everything up until the age of 10 including her best friend paige who she met when she was four but now she's lucky to remember things for a couple of hours. 

To keep reminding herself of things, she writes over her hands, her arms and even has a special book to tell her just who she is and why she has been left in this state. It's a daily battle to keep up with normal day to day life.

Elf on the Shelf 2016 Round Up 2

Hey everyone, 9 days into December and I have a cracker of an Elf on the Shelf round up for you, Buddy has been both kind and funny, so far he's kept his naughty antics to a minimum. Read on to see just what he's got up to this week..

Day three

The countdown has well and truly begun and Buddy and Jovie wanted to show that he was counting down the days too, not so bad as it meant there was a sweet treat for the girls to enjoy too.

Wise Words for Kids Book Review

A couple of months ago I had the chance to review the fantastic Book of Everyone. This was what I described as a personalised book like no other, filled with lots of fun facts and pages where you can edit sentences to fit in with the person you are giving the book too. Well those clever people behind that top notch book have come up with another quite frankly brilliant book in the shape of Wise Words for Kids.

I was given a code which allowed me to order a copy for myself to review at no cost. Just like the previous book the process of putting it together is a simple one although I found myself putting a but more thought into this one as it's more quote based and what I wanted was a good mix of both helpful, meaningful and funny.

Even Superheroes Have Bad Days Book Review

I love a good book delivery and that's just what the kids got the other day and it included the fantastic new book from author Shelly Becker, Even Superheroes Have Bad Days. With my girls currently into all things superhero related thanks to the DC superhero girl range, this couldn't have been a more appropriate book for them.

When superheroes don't get their way, when they're sad, when they're mad, when they've had a bad day, they could super-rampage - they could, but they don't, because real superheroes just wouldn't - they won't!

Counting Down to Christmas With #NumNomsAdvent

The count down to Christmas is well and truly under way. Every year my kids are lucky enough to get a selection of advent calendars. They normally receive one each and they also share an advent train which I fill with a range of small chocolates. This year the girls have been gifted a very different sort of advent calendar, it's a #NumNomsAdvent calendar. What they were lucky enough to receive was a parcel overflowing with 24 presents in an array of shapes and sizes.

Read With Me 2016 #49

Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks Read With Me. Can you believe that we've reached December and the countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun. I've been getting myself into the festive mood by reading some wonderfully Christmas themed books.

We've also been reading some Christmassy books at school including Mog's Christmas and The Christmas Present. The girls had The Jolly Postman delivered to them last week by their friendly Elf on the Shelf. I've been wanting to get this book for quite some time and was so pleased when the lovely guys at Puffin Books sent me a a surprise copy in the post.

My Sunday Photo 2016 #49

Not a lot to say with this weeks photo, I think it is quite self explanatory, Christmas has well and truly arrived in our household. I love sitting with the Christmas tree lights on, something so very cosy about it.

Surviving Christmas With a Little Help From Room to Grow

With only three more Saturdays until Christmas arrives, I'm sure there are lots of you already panicking about presents that you need to buy, decorations that you'd like to put up and just how you are going to manage to entertain everyone on the day itself. As much as this is my favourite time of the year, I have to admit that surviving Christmas can be hard sometimes, those stress levels definitely run high. So with a little help from Room to Grow I'm going to share with you my 5 top tips on how to not turn into scrooge this December, keeping that festive spirit alive.

1. Plan ahead

Organisation is most definitely key when it comes to Christmas. I  tend to buy presents all year round, grab things when they are in the sale, stockpile smaller gifts incase someone I didn't expect hands me a gift. I keep a note of just what I've bought, who it is for and just where I've hidden it (I've been known to lose presents before).

Elf on the Shelf 2016 Round Up 1

Elf on the Shelf has become quite the tradition in our house as has me showing you all of our elf antics. This is our 4th year of doing this and I must say that coming up with new ideas is becoming somewhat tricky. I've decided to pop a post up every Friday with just what Buddy has been up to. Now it's only the 2nd of December so this round up will be short but do come back next week for another dose of elf inspiration.

Day one

Buddy came back to visit with a special delivery inside a special box....

Advent calendars for all the family and .... his new girlfriend Jovie.

Taste Testing the Festive Menu at the Beefeater

I am a huge fan of Christmas so it is no surprise that I'm quite partial to a Christmas dinner too. I always remember my mum making the best festive dinners, you know the ones where the plates are over flowing with food and you'd always be left completely stuffed. I try and replicate these meals myself every year but I'll admit it is so much better having someone cook for you. So when I was invited to have a bit of a taste test of the festive menu at one of my local Beefeater restaurants I was quick to jump at the chance.

You can see from the menu above that there is quite the selection of food and as well as all of that, there is also a child's Christmas dinner too. Our meals were pre-ordered and when we arrived at the Eureka Park Beefeater we were greeted by staff and taken to a table fully kitted out with crackers, Santa hats and little games to play, festive spirit was most definitely in the air and this made for a brilliant start to a family meal out.